[the committee's conclusion is crap; money is not the issue - each palestinian child dying of starvation [if any, btw.] goes straight to paradise as a martyr, so the humanitarian situation in palestine does not matter to them in a western understanding, it only serves their goals in means of propaganda; each euro or dollar spent by civilized countries for humanitarian needs of them means an euro or dollar spent by muslim sources can be used for support of terror - or a new pair of high heels for Mrs Arafat in Paris; dm+]
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news3.htm British parliamentary committee says West’s boycott pushes Islamists close to Iran LONDON (Reuters) — The West's isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government has served only to push it closer to Iran, a British parliamentary committee said on Wednesday. Hamas trounced the more moderate Fateh in an election last year. Its refusal to negotiate peace with Israel triggered a Western aid embargo which the International Development Committee noted had forced it to look elsewhere for financial support amid a rising crisis of poverty and hardship. "Hamas now has closer links to governments like that of Iran than it had two years ago. We doubt whether this is a development that the international community would have intended," the committee concluded in a report on development assistance and the occupied Palestinian territories. Malcolm Bruce, chairman of the committee, said the international community had created a dangerous situation where Islamist Hamas has no accountability either to the people or to the Palestinian Authority. "We're saying the situation is unsustainable and the government's refusal to talk to Hamas could be counter-productive," Bruce, a Liberal Democrat, said. "The clear message is that if this goes on for much longer it will effectively collapse the Palestinian state." The report also said that the so-called Temporary International Mechanism — created to provide aid directly to the Palestinians while the boycott of Hamas continues — was not a suitable fix. "The Temporary International Mechanism was a timely response to the crisis ... but is insufficient to cope with it," the report concluded. "Increasing donor assistance is not the answer to the problems facing the Palestinians." The European Union spent 680 million euros on aid to the Palestinians in 2006, of which 200 million went through the mechanism, according to Foreign Office figures. Britain channelled £70 million through the TIM. A Foreign Office spokesman declined to comment on the report. Western countries have said they will maintain the boycott on Hamas unless it renounces violence, recognises Israel's right to exist and agrees to abide by past peace agreements. Bruce said it was not enough for Britain to hold its breath and hope for a breakthrough in the peace process. "Over history we've spoken to terrorist organisations like the IRA. That kind of contact has to happen [with Hamas]," he said. The report also urged the international community to hold Israel to its promise of implementing an agreement with Palestinians dating back to November 2005, to facilitate the movement of people and goods within the Palestinian territories.. Wednesday, January 31, 2007 +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
